


Wings Made Of Flesh and Memories

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Gen, Wings, lucretia erased that fact, the IPRE homeworld had wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-05-18 10:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14850927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: This final world they had landed on was so much like their own. They were so lucky to have a place where they could fit in and pick up new lives mostly uninterrupted. There was just one thing that set them apart as otherworldly and strange from the rest of this plane.Those were the wings that each member of the IPRE had.When Lucretia set up new homes for each member of her family, she had to be sure that they would be able to fit in. She had to keep them safe, to make sure nothing ruined these lives for them.Their wings needed to be edited.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkrystalSky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkrystalSky/gifts).



Lucretia took a deep breath, giving herself a moment to recover. Only a moment though, she still had so much to do and she barely managed to get everyone to the new lives she’d set out for them. Or well, almost everyone.

Davenport was still with her, and it would have to stay that way until she could figure out if he would recover from this.

She’d tried to be so careful, but she couldn’t predict how the voidfish would affect everyone. There was no way to know how exactly it would handle erasing so much information. There was no way to test it beforehand. Despite the pain it caused her to see them all so broken and confused it was what she needed to do.

The years passed and there was no sign of improvement from her captain. Despite how much she hated seeing him like this, in a way it was a good thing. It meant that Fisher’s powers didn’t diminish over time. None of them would be able to remember what she’d taken from them, not until she let them.

It didn’t make it any easier watching him though. The gnome she was so used to being in charge and put together couldn’t hold a conversation anymore, or even take care of his own wings.

The wings had been hard to edit around, it was something she was uncertain about the entire time she made her redaction. This plane was so much like their home world. After the hundred worlds they’d seen, they were beyond lucky to end up in a place where they could fit in so well.

Of course, one thing that made them stand out as distinctly different from everyone on this plane were their wings.

On their home world all the humanoid races possessed wings, although there were differences between them of course. They’d been a simple fact of life though, and it wasn’t something any of them had thought about until they first came to a world where the humanoids were earthbound. 

This final world was one without wings, and Lucretia had struggled to find a way to blend them in without complete erasure. In the end she had erased that it was a factor of their home world, and she was fairly certain it had done the job. None of the people she met throughout this plane, the ones she had brought into her newly developing bureau noticed the deep blue wings pressed against her back. No one mentioned the large white ones Davenport often let drag along behind him.

He didn’t fly anymore, even though Lucretia struggled to think of times when he’d stay on the ground for an entire day in the past. Often she’d have to sit him down and comb and clean his wings, because he never would himself.

It hurt to see, but she had to do this. She had to save this world and her friends.

It would just be a little while longer.

—

What Magnus loved about Raven’s Roost was how high up it was. It was something he always appreciated, standing on the edge of one of the giant pillars and letting the wind blow around him. It felt natural, like he was supposed to be up in the sky.

“If you’re not careful you’re gonna fall,” Julia called, sounding more amused than anything. Magnus grinned widely and turned back towards her, not moving any further away from the edge.

“What do you think that would be like?” he asked, and he could see the fond exasperation on her face now.

“Falling to your death? Probably not great,” she said, and Magnus shook his head.

“No, like flying,” he clarified, and this time Julia got a thoughtful look on her face. She looked out over the vast expanse of planes down way below their home as she mulled over the question.

“I guess if we’re talking flying that would be pretty nice. Find a powerful enough wizard and you could find out,” she said, and Magnus moved from where he was standing on the edge to join her.

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, already trying to remember if he heard of any powerful wizards in Raven’s Roost. None that he could think of off the top of his head, but he could always look around.

He never got around to it, the next week he caught some sort of nasty bug. He was left sore and miserable and  _ itchy _ for a week. Julia said there wasn’t any rash, but he figured he must’ve had an allergic reaction to something. By the time it passed, he’d forgotten about his want to go find a wizard to cast fly on him.

And then the Governor started to abuse his power, and Magnus found himself in the middle of a revolution, and silly little things like wanting to fly had to be put by the wayside.

—

Merle sputtered when a hand swatted him in the back of the head. When he turned towards the source Hecuba was stalking away in annoyance. Not exactly an unusual sight, but usually he at least knew what it was he’d done. For once he was genuinely clueless.

“What was that for?” he asked, and usually his inability to sound sincere was funny, or at least it was to him. This time though it actually felt kind of bothersome.

“That’s the third time today you’ve knocked into me,” Hecuba snapped, and Merle frowned.

“I never ran into ya, we were a foot apart!” he argued. He knew he wasn’t the most observant and didn’t have the best memory or any idea what was going on half the time, but he figured he would have at least noticed if he kept running into someone over and over again.

“The  _ third time, _ ” she insisted, the tone of her voice that one she got when she was silently keeping count of how many times he’d screwed up. “And yesterday you knocked that plate out of my hands,” she added.

“I’m pretty sure you were just a butterfingers there,” Merle tried to argue. “Sure, maybe I’m packing on the pounds a little but I ain’t that wide yet,” he said, trying to turn this into a joke. Instead of finding it amusing his wife huffed and left the room. Merle sighed, grumbling to himself as he turned to head outside.

A crash sounded next to him, and Merle looked down to see a vase that had held some of the flowers from his garden shattered on the floor.

“I swear if you broke something else!” Hecuba’s voice shouted from across the house.

“I’ll fix it, I’ll fix it!” Merle yelled back. At least Mavis and Mookie were down at the beach right now. Slowly, Merle started cleaning up the shards of glass and plant bits.

Maybe something was going on here.

He was starting to feel pretty cooped up in this place.

Might not hurt to find somewhere bigger.

—

“Sazed, damn it… fucking… Sazed!” Taako shouted, brushing a few stray feathers off his prep station. After a minute Sazed made his way into the small room.

“What now?” he asked already sounding fed up, which Taako didn’t feel he had any right to be. He’d barely done shit around here lately.

“I fucking told you to check up in the rafters for the birds, there are feathers everywhere again,” Taako complained. This always happened, and it always had the joy of springing up whenever he was already stressed as fuck.

“I don’t- god fucking damn it Taako, how many times do I have to tell you? We don’t have any rafters, this is a stagecoach,” Sazed snapped. Taako grumbled, not turning to face him as he continued to smash the garlic cloves he’d need for tonight.

“Not the point my dude! I don’t give a shit where the bird is I just want it out of here,” he said, dumping the garlic into a bowl after checking it for any errant feathers.

“I’ve looked a million times, I’m telling you there’s no bird,” Sazed said. Taako huffed, and he knew Sazed had looked for the cause of the feathers before, but he never found shit and the feathers kept showing up and it was frustrating as hell.

“Whatever, if you can’t do one simple thing then at least make yourself useful and get rid of the feathers,” Taako said. Grabbing a broom across the room with mage hand he jabbed it at Sazed. He grabbed it roughly and started sweeping up the orange and brown feathers littering the floor.

“I swear, we gotta keep this place clean. Do you have any idea how bad for business it’d be if someone ate my food and got sick?” Taako grumbled, starting to finish up with his prep.

“Yeah, that’d be terrible,” Sazed muttered, but Taako ignored him.

It turned out that keeping a clean prep station didn’t mean shit. Forty people ate his food that night, with elderberries he’d transmuted into nightshade, and every one of them died.

As they spend away from glamour springs Taako sat in the back of the stagecoach. He was pulling at his hair, clothes, everything as he tried to keep himself together.

And he watched as a steady trail of orange and brown feathers flew out the back of the stagecoach.

—

Lucretia was all excitement laced with nerves when she confirmed that Taako, Merle and Magnus were coming up to the moon base. She had to keep her cool though. She couldn’t give herself away. That’s what she was nervous about, that somehow her plan would backfire and her friends would be harmed in the process.

But she was still excited, because she was going to have her family back. Not entirely and not all of them, but it had been so long. With this she was one step closer to finishing her plan once and for all.

The excitement she’d felt died in her throat when she finally got a look at them however.

There was a moment where she tried to tell herself it must’ve been battle damage from what they’d gone through, but no. The state they were in wasn’t something you got in a day or even a few weeks. She’d seen their wings mangled and broken after battles, and this wasn’t it.

This was the result of years of neglect, and another flaw in her editing came crashing down around her.

She’d tried so hard to leave them aware of their wings, but it was clear as day now that she’d failed.

She fought back the desire to say something, didn’t let the want choke her from where it was lodged in her throat. She sent them through the test of initiation, paid them their reward for bringing in a relic.

“Oh, one last little bonus before you go,” Lucretia said, pulling out three coupons she’d conjured earlier. “This is a bit unconventional but we also haven’t had anyone successfully bring in a relic yet either. So here are three coupons for a spa treatment at a location on base,” she said, handing them the slips.

“Nice,” Taako said, and with that Lucretia ended the meeting.

It took a little bit of finagling, but it wasn’t difficult to find out exactly when the three were planning to use their spa coupons. As soon as she knew she headed over there, starting to set up the appropriate supplies before they arrived. Once she was certain everything was ready she did the last piece of prep.

Standing in front of one of the many mirrors, she cast disguise self. Her appearance changed from that of an older, dark skinned human woman to a deep purple tiefling, short horns sweeping back with equally short hair.

Once it was done she headed out to the front, and it wasn’t long before the three reclaimers walked in.

“Hello, how may I help you today?” she asked, pitching her voice to be higher and more youthful than her normal one.

“Hey! We got these uh, special coupons from the director for free treatments or whatever?” Magnus said, holding out his coupon. She took it and made a show of looking it over before nodding.

“Yes of course. This is a very high end treatment, we’ll send all three of you to the spa room and I’ll take each of you one at a time for the massage,” she explained.

“Why one at a time? Doesn’t this place have more than one employee?” Taako asked, and she supposed she should’ve expected that. Taako was always questioning things.

“As I said, it’s a very high end treatment and I’m the only one qualified to give it,” she said. It wasn’t technically a lie.

“Wait, is this a sex thing? I’ll pass if it’s a sex thing,” Magnus said, and Lucretia supposed she also should’ve expected that.

“No, it is not a sex thing,” she insisted.

_ “Can it _ be a sex thing?” Merle asked, wagging his eyebrows at her for good measure.

“No, and ew,” she said, letting herself make a look of disgust as well.

“Fucking seconded, grosseronni old man! Yuck! I’m going first to get away from you freaks,” Taako snapped, and it was hard for Lucretia to keep herself from laughing at that. She missed their ridiculousness.

“Alright then sir, come this way. You two can make your way down the hall, the first door on the right is open and ready for you,” she said. Merle and Magnus went without any more comments, and Taako followed after her. It didn’t take long to get him lying down and situated, on his stomach with his wings splayed out to either side.

“Now just relax,” she said as she got out a few supplies to start on his wings.

“Alright there sister,” he said, and it was impossible to tell if he was being truthful or not. Not just because he was lying face down but because it was so hard to read him at all anymore.

She didn’t say anything though, instead starting to inspect his wings and try to find the best way to help them.

The biggest thing about his wings were how patchy they were. Taako had always been a nervous picker, pulling out feathers and shedding whenever he was stressed. She’d never seen it anywhere close to this bad before. There were also small burn marks. Whether they were from spells that had hit his wings or cooking incidents, she couldn’t tell.

She set about combing out any loose feathers that Taako has somehow yet to pull out first, cleaning the wings with cool water as she did. She trimmed out as many of the burned feathers as she could without feeling like she was stripping him even more bare than he already was.

“Holy shit lady, I dunno what you’re doing back there but fucking approved, keep it up,” Taako mumbled after some time. Lucretia couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. At least she could help them out the slightest bit now.

Once his wings were as cleaned and straightened and patched as much as she could manage (they weren’t anywhere close to the silky, vibrate wings she was used to seeing on the elf. Taako and Lup had always prided themselves on their looks, their wings included in that) she did a cursory back massage. Finishing up with that she carefully helped Taako sit back up.

“You can go rest in the spa with while I finish up your two friends, if you could send the next one in,” she said and Taako nodded. He looked so much more relaxed than she had seen him so far.

“Hell yeah, fucking expect me back too. Free coupon or not,” he said.

Magnus came in next, and she went through the same process as she had with Taako’s wings. As she started she took note of all the ways his had been damaged and bruised over the years.

They weren’t as patchy as Taako’s, but there were still thin areas. Instead of an overall bareness there were spots where Lucretia could see old wounds that were never treated. Places where the wings had been slashed or stabbed and left to heal on their own, scars where new feathers wouldn’t grow. She carefully straightened large feathers bent out of place and felt a sense of relief once she finished. Despite the battles they’d gone through, she still felt certain that he’d be able to fly with them if he tried.

Merle winked at her when he came in, but thankfully that was the extent to his teasing.

Lucretia was so used to seeing his wings with flowers poking out between the feathers, matching the ones in his beard. They had always been a little dirty, a little scruffy. There had been a deliberateness to it though.

This was beyond that. Where there used to be flowers were sticks and brambles snagged in uncomfortable ways. his feathers tangled up in dried mud (and not so dried mud from his time waiting in the spa). She carefully pulled out each broken bit, washing the dirt from his wings slowly. 

Once she was finished with all three of them she led them out to the front of the spa.

“Thank you for coming, I hope to see you all again soon,” she said. Their wings almost looked healthy now and she told herself they would be alright. They’d heal and grow again, now that there was a way for her to take care of them.

“Absolutely, that was fucking great,” Magnus said, the other two voicing their agreement.

As soon as she was sure they were gone, she went into the back room and dropped the disguise self.

It was going to be okay. She was helping them now.

It was just for a little bit longer.

—

The Red Robe had wings.

It was one of the first things that stood out about him when they’d first seen him in Captain Captain Bane’s office. It was a vibrant red specter with two wings stretched out behind him. They were black and mostly bones, brittle and dead and clearly not the source of his flight.

The Red Robe figure in the statue at Refuge also had wings.

These wings were different from the wings the other Red Robe had. They weren’t broken and skeletal, barely giving the hint of something that could once fly. The wings in the statue were alive and full, the feathers meticulously carved into something beautiful.

They were bigger than the other Red Robe’s too. Magnus had no doubt that they were powerful enough to let the Red Robe fly, even without the use of any sort of magic.

And that was about as much as he thought about it. They were too busy going through loop after loop, trying to figure out how to save Refuge to focus much on the fact that a Red Robe was herald as a hero here.

Or at least, that was as much as he thought about it, until June gave him that paper.

He was in his room and he couldn’t stop staring at it. It was him.

It was a picture of him for the statue in Refuge.

It was a picture of the Red Robe for the statue in Refuge.

Those two thoughts wouldn’t sit together in his mind.

He had wings in this picture, whoever that was in the statue, both him and the Red Robe, had the same strong wings.

Glancing behind him, Magnus wasn’t sure what he expected to see, but there wasn’t anything there. Sighing, he put the paper away, his brain hurt too much trying to figure it out.

Despite his better judgment, Magnus reached an arm back behind him. He already looked, he knew there wasn’t anything there, he wasn’t expecting anything to happen.

He reached back, and felt his hand brush against a wall of feathers. His first instinct was to jerk his hand back and forget all about it. Magnus forced himself not to let go, clenching his fist into the feathers.

This time when he looked back, it felt almost like he had to wait a moment for his eyes to come into focus. Like one of those magic eye posters, you have to squint and cross your eyes.

He could see them though. There plain as day were a pair of large, powerful wings.

He didn't know whether to hole up under his covers, or go jumping off the edge of the moon base to test their flight.

—

Taako had been hoping to rest when he got back from Refuge. Sure, he hadn’t died in that last cycle, but it sure felt like he did with how exhausted he was.

That wasn’t an option though, because when he walked into his dorm the grim reaper was waiting for him. He reasonably wanted an explanation on the fuckton of deaths that had appeared for them.

And Taako was trying to give him that explanation. Sure he wasn’t the smartest dude, but he was trying to best to keep things straight (or at least, his story straight, he actively wasn’t trying when it came to other aspects of himself) as he told Kravitz about the Relic. Which, the dude was being a lot more open to conversation than the last time they talked.

Kravitz had explained it as ‘the amount of bullshit going on with you all has passed the point of me being angry. Now I’m just confused.' Which Taako could respect.

What was annoying about all this was that Kravitz kept seeming to get distracted.

“Like something you see my dude? Because normally I’d be down but cha’ boy’s fucking exhausted and I kinda figured we should decide what’s going down with all the deaths first,” he blurted out after the fifth time Kravitz’s eyes seemed to wander. The reaper sat up with a start, clearly flustered.

“No, well no not like- I mean not  _ not _ like-” he stumbled out, and Taako let a large grin spread across his face at Kravitz’s floundering. Even with how tired he was, it was still funny. After a moment the dude took a deep breath before continuing speaking.

“Sorry if I was being disrespectful, it’s just that I’ve been around a long time, you have to understand,” he said, and Taako nodded.

“Yeah no I’m sure this millions of repeated death stitch is old news to you,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. Kravitz shook his head though.

“Well no, it’s very much not. Nothing about this is normal and so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by anything with you at this point. I’ve just never seen an elf with wings before,” he said, and Taako blinked in confusion.

“Uh, is that the start of a pickup line? You must have wings because I’m looking at an angel?” Taako asked, letting the amusement in his voice show. Now Kravitz was looking confused though, and that didn’t make much sense.

“No, that would be a pretty bad one anyway. I mean I’ve never seen someone with wings before,” he clarified, which didn’t actually clarify anything.

“And? Just stating that fact for no reason or what?” Taako pressed.

“And you have wings? It’s not- I’m not judging you or anything but it is surprising,” Kravitz said. Taako was frowning deeply now, frantically searching Kravitz’s face for some sigh that he was fucking with him. He didn’t know the dude super well, most of their encounters up to this point had been trying to kill each other, but Taako was good at spotting bullshit.

He couldn’t see any here.

“I have  _ wings?” _ he asked, a disbelieving laugh escaping him as he spoke.

“Yes? I don’t- are they new? I hadn’t seen them in the lab, but I was assuming they were under those strange suits you were all wearing,” Kravitz said. Taako was still grinning in amused disbelief, because there must be something wrong with this dude’s eyes. Taako was pretty damn sure he’d know if he had a couple of extra limbs hanging about.

“They aren’t  _ new! _ They aren’t real, do I look like a bird to you?” Taako said, hand fidgeting with the couch cushion next to him.

“They’re illusions?” Kravitz asked, and Taako shook his head, starting to get frustrated.

“No, there’s nothing fucking there I don’t know what the hell you’re talking-” Taako started to insist, cutting himself off when he saw a clump of small orange and brown feathers clutched in his hand. “They’re not-” he tried, turning to look and there were feathers all over the couch now. Which happened. After a while, Taako came to accept it. It wasn’t like he was cooking anymore, the feathers weren’t much of a problem.

They were all over the couch now though, and it took a moment for Taako to process what he was seeing. For the image of loose feathers to congeal into an actual wing spreading from his back, dusty and beaten from his time in Refuge.

It was patchy too, like similar clumps of feathers as the one in Taako’s hand had been pulled out every so often.

“What the- what the  _ fuck?” _ Taako snapped, jumping up from the couch and practically twirling to try to get a good look at the wings.

“Taako, is everything okay?” Kravitz asked, and he sounded concerned but Taako couldn’t focus on that. He reached out to touch the wings and they were solid underneath his fingers. They were real and he didn’t- how the fuck- he’d never.

“Fuck… holy  _ fuck,” _ he muttered, and they were the same brown and orange as all the feathers. They’d always been there. How did he never  _ notice _ them before?

“Taako, maybe you should sit down,” Kravitz suggested. Instead of bothering to move back to the couch or anything he slumped to the ground. “I suppose that works,” he added, sounding like he had no idea what to do. Which was fair.

Taako was trying to keep himself together, keep himself from having a goddamn breakdown in front of this dude over something that didn’t make a lick of sense to him. He wasn’t doing great in that regard though.

He had wings, beaten up patchy wings at that. They couldn’t even bother to be beautiful. They had the base to be, they could probably be gorgeous if taken care of, but it was hard to think about something like that right now.

Part of him wondered if he stopped looking at them they would go away again. Curling in on himself, he fucking tried. He could feel them now though, like slowly regaining feeling in a limb that was numb from sitting on it for too long. They were there and real and he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.

“Taako, please just breathe,” Kravitz said, and Taako had almost forgotten he was there for a moment.

“I’m fine- I’m-” he started, cutting off when the sound of the door clicking open resonated in the relative quiet.

Glancing up, Merle was standing at the door, a surprised look on his face. Taako felt the wings on his back curl even further around him on instinct. Merle expression when from shocked to suddenly grabbing at his extreme teen bible.

Taako realized he was crouched on the ground, definitely not in his best state and had the dude who had previously tried to kill them all hovering above him.

“Well… this looks a lot worse than it actually is,” Kravitz said, voicing exactly what Taako was feeling.

—

Merle wasn’t expecting much when he walked into his dorm, thoughts somewhat preoccupied. He was distracted when he saw that grim reaper fellow standing over a crouched Taako, Magnus nowhere in sight.

He said it looked worse than it actually was, and without thinking twice Merle cast zone of truth.

“Hey there buddy, whatcha doing here? I thought we had a deal and all,” Merle asked, moving further into the room.

“We do, I didn’t come here with the intention of hurting any of you. I simply needed answers about the many, many deaths that happened,” Kravitz explained. Taako was uncurling somewhat from where he was on the floor.

“Damn it Merle, did you fucking zone of truth us?” he snapped, still not seeming to be completely put together again.

“Yes, yes I did,” Merle answered, realizing that he had failed his own save.

“I’m having a slight panic attack but it doesn’t have shit to do with Kravitz so can you go?” Taako said, before cringing slightly. “Ugh, I hate zone of truth, that’s a fucking fact,” he added.

“You’re not gonna cart him off to the underworld or anything, are ya?” Merle asked Kravitz, still suspicious.

“No, I don’t have any official bounties out for any of you, I just need to know what’s going on,” Kravitz insisted. Merle stared at him for a few long, quiet moments before shrugging heavily and dispelling the zone of truth.

“Works for me, you two kids have fun,” he said, starting to head back to his own room.

“Hey old man,” Taako said before he could leave, slowly climbing back to his feet. “When were any of y’all going to mention the fact that cha’ boy’s got wings?” he asked. Merle frowned, turning back to look at the elf to see if he’d magic’d himself up some in the seconds where his back had been turned. There wasn’t anything there though.

“Uh, when you get some probably?” he guessed.

“Is… is this a bad time to mention that Merle Highchurch also has wings?” Kravitz said, sounding very uncertain as he spoke.

“Oh, you must be confusing me with Della Reese,” Merle waved off. Taako didn’t say anything, instead seeming to steel himself before stomping over to Merle and waving his hand a bit frantically behind his back.

“Ouch!” Merle said when Taako managed to grab a hold of  _ something _ and pull. For a moment he thought it was hair, but then it felt like it was pulling him way too forward to one side. After a moment he could hear Taako muttering, almost on the edge of another panic.

“What the fuck? What the fucking fuck? Wings? Why the hell are there wings? Where the _ fuck?” _ he said. It was a little uncomfortable with how he was being held, but Merle twisted around and he could feel something coming from his back now. Deciding to go with it, he tried to pull whatever it was away from Taako’s grip and it seemed to work.

It took a few more moments, but after a bit Merle could see the thick, scruffy wings on his back. This time when he looked, he could see the tall, elegant looking ones on Taako’s back.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Merle said, taking a moment to let that all process. “This is… weird,” he added.

“Yeah no shit,” Taako snapped.

“I feel like this is probably a bad time to talk,” Kravitz said, taking a step back from the two of them. Taako sighed heavily, and Merle could see how tired the wizard looked.

“Yeah, shit’s whack, you got a way for us to get in contact with you when things are less fucked or what?” Taako asked.

“I’ll let you two figure out all that,” Merle said as Kravitz started to pull out a stone of far speech. “I’m just gonna go,” he added.

“Please do I have this completely under control,” Taako said. Instead of heading to his room, Merle left the dorm again. It could probably wait until morning, but he was pretty sure the Director wasn’t an early to bed early to rise person.

Heading to her office, he wasn’t surprised when he knocked on the door and he got an answer. “Come in,” she called from inside, and Merle did as such.

“Merle, is everything alright?” Lucretia asked, seeming surprised to see him here again. Which made sense, he’d been in here a few hours ago to destroy the relic and all that.

“Oh yeah, things are fine. Check this out!” he said, and started to haphazardly flap the wings on his back. Her eyes widened and he figured they must’ve suddenly appeared for her like they had for everyone else. “Pretty rad, right?” he asked, and she sat there for a moment, looking stunned.

“I- yes. Merle, when did you…” she asked, looking like she could barely find her words.

“I don’t have any idea,” Merle answered honestly. “Walked in on Taako talking to one of his uhhh, dead buddies, and he mentioned I have wings and now I do,” he explained. It looked like she was struggling to figure out what part of that to ask about first. “Oh, pointy hat’s got a pair too, but I think he’s a little sensitive about them so maybe don’t bring em up,” he added.

“Right, I’ll be sure not to do that,” she said, before sighing heavily. “Well, this is certainly… unexpected.”

“I’ll say! I got  _ wings,” _ Merle agreed.

“Yes, well, I don’t- I suppose we could look to see if it’s some sort of curse? Or magical effect?” she asked, and Merle shrugged.

"Eh, I’m not gonna go knocking em before I try em,” he said, before thinking a moment. “Taako was kinda freaked by the whole thing though, might be a good idea to ease the kid’s peace of mind,” he said.

“I’ll look into it then,” she said, and Merle nodded.

“Well, I’m going to go see if I can get some sleep and see if these babies are still there in the morning,” he said.

“Of course, goodnight Merle,” Lucretia said.

“Night,” he said, leaving the office. When he got back to his dorm no one was out in the living room and Merle was able to head to his room uninterrupted. Climbing into bed, he thought he’d have to be careful of his new wings, but he seemed to situate himself without any issue. It was like the way he was lying before had always been done with them in mind.

And maybe it was. It would certainly explain some things.

He was too tired and not anywhere close to being the brains of the operation to figure this one out. That was fine with him too, all of these things, though odd, were fine by him.

—

Lucretia sighed heavily once the door to her office was closed and Merle was gone. That wasn’t what she expected. Things had been going so well, better than she had expected.

Once she was able to do check ups every so often on their wings, she’d stopped stressing about them so much. They still weren’t taken care of as well as they should be, but they were manageable. They weren’t going to get into the state she’d seen them in when they first arrived at the Bureau again.

And with that issue out of the way, there was no reason for them to remember their wings now. They’d be almost impossible to explain, and might clue them in on the fact that there was so much more being kept from them than they could ever imagine.

Somehow though, (Merle had said ‘one of Taako’s dead buddies’ and she’d have to parse that later) they had managed to remember. Or not remember, it was impossible to remember something the voidfish had taken without being inoculated.

Somehow they were made aware that their wings were there at all, and she had no idea what to do about that now.

She’s have to keep playing dumb. She couldn’t let them know she had any idea about why they might have wings. Hopefully their awareness of their own wings wouldn’t spread to awareness of hers or Davenport’s. It didn’t seem to be the case yet, Merle would’ve mentioned something if he’d seen hers.

Giving herself a moment to gather her thoughts, she spun her chair around. With a wave of her staff, the portrait behind her shifted. She tried not to let herself indulge in longing for what she’d torn apart herself too often. Sometimes though she needed the reminder, and despite having ripped her family to pieces, she was doing this for them.

Looking over the painting, she slowly took in the appearance of each of her friends, despite having memorized it long ago.

Merle was up front, his wings small given his dwarven nature, but thick and sturdy. A speckled patchwork of grays and browns with bright colorful flowers strung throughout the feathers. Davenport was smiling next to him, his large wings never quite able to fold up elegantly behind him. It was easy to see the white undersides outlined with bits of black.

Lup and Taako’s wings were as identical as the rest of them, although after knowing them so long it wasn’t hard to spot the small differences. They were both large, elegant wings typical of elves, despite the muted brown and orange color palette they shared. There were differences though. Where Taako’s wings were meticulously kept as silky and smooth as possible, wings that looked like they hadn't done work a day in his life, Lup’s had more signs of use. They were still cared for flawlessly, but her feathers were often ruffled, some of the lighter patches covered with soot from explosions.

In contrast to the twin’s beautifully kept wings, Barry’s own wings, while a vibrant blue, were almost always ruffled and unmanaged. They were smaller than typical of someone his size, reflecting a lack of use. Despite, or perhaps more because of all that they fit him perfectly.

From where Magnus was behind everyone, he had a wing stretched out and framing the group. Strong and large, clearly able to carry someone as large as himself and able to glide for great distances. They were a solid brown and had the occasional nick from previous fights.

Her own wings were barely noticeable in the portrait, held close to her back and bunched up, wanting to make as much room for her family to crowd around. There were still bits of white and blue that could be seen peaking out from behind her shoulders. The sight of her own wings didn’t matter much there though. They were still something she could see every day. She had never lost them.

She had lost so many things, but she supposed it was only fair considering what she had taken from her family.


	2. Chapter 2

Barry didn’t know what happened last night, but he knew that he was gonna need a lot of rest to come back from this hangover.

First things first though, he needed to find clothes. And the reason why he was in some weird spooky cave. He had the distinct impression that this wasn’t the weirdest place he’d ever woken up in, so it didn’t bother him as much as it should.

It didn’t take him long to find his clothes, laid out on some trunk like someone else had set them there. It took a bit of maneuvering to get them on, he guessed he was still pretty drunk.

When he put his hands in his pockets, taking a moment to think through his current situation, he came back with a coin. It didn’t look like a money coin, it was a little too big for that.

Then it started speaking in his voice, telling him things about himself. First things he already knew, things he didn’t expect a lot of other people to know. Then it got into other stuff, waxing weird poetics about an empty feeling and lost family and lost love.

It stirred something in his chest he didn’t expect, and he tried to push that away for now.

_ Okay, there’s one last thing, and Barry you’re gonna have to bare with me here. _

His voice in the coin sounded a little tired and like he already knew that what he was going to say wasn’t gonna go over well.

_ Alright, first of all you’re human, I don’t need to tell you that one. What I’m about to explain doesn’t change that, but I’m gonna need you to try not to think about it that much. _

“Well now that you say that bud it’s gonna be the only thing I can focus on,” Barry replied, even though he was pretty sure the coin was a one way street.

_ You have wings. You haven’t noticed them yet and I bet if you looked behind you right now you won’t see anything. _

He looked, and the coin was right, there wasn’t anything there.

_ Okay, just close your eyes and reach an arm behind you until you feel something and don’t let go. Don’t let go until you look and you can see them. _

It was a little weird, but the coin sounded so desperate. So Barry did as it said and to his surprise he felt something. He’d been reaching for wings but it took him a second to realize it was feathers. He opened his eyes, and he didn’t let go until the sight of blue wings still damp from whatever weird sludge was in that pod.

“Holy fuckin shit,” he said, and almost as if on cue the coin started to speak again.

_ Yeah, okay I know. Listen, they’re real and you need to take care of them. No one else should be able to notice them so hiding em shouldn't be an issue. _

The coin kept going on, telling him about his wings and giving him other instructions as well. Telling him to leave some blood in the weird pod and make his way to a town called Phandolin. It was all weird and not anything he could ever remember being normal for him.

According to the coin though, there was a lot of stuff he couldn’t remember.

Without anything else to do, Barry followed the coins instructions and headed off to the town. Seeking out a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker.

He couldn’t help looking back at his wings every now and then. They were so strange and he felt like he should be completely shocked by them.

Somehow, nothing about this was truly shocking.

It almost felt like something he’d done a hundred times over, and it was all muscle memory.

——

Magnus managed to keep himself from giving into the urge of jumping off of the moonbase somehow. He didn’t want to set an even worse example for his plight to get dogs on the moon. There was no way the Director would listen if he just went and ran right off the damn thing himself.

But that still left him with the wings problem. And the statue problem. And the problem of the way thoughts wouldn’t sit right in his head when he tried to piece through them.

He didn’t- He wasn’t sure what to do, but he wasn’t sure if he could tell anyone to get help.

He couldn’t fully wrap his head around the reasons why, but he didn’t want them not to trust him. If they found out about him- about this weird connection he had with the Red Robe Taako and Merle might not trust him anymore.

So, he had to keep this a secret.

The issue was, he was kinda shitty at keeping secrets from his best friends.

So he’d just have to not see them.

He was lucky in that regard. No one saw much of Taako for the next couple of days, but he figured the elf was still recovering from everything in Refuge. Merle was always the quickest of them to bounce back from things like that.

Merle was also acting kind of weird though, and Magnus  _ swore  _ he had to know there was something he was hiding.

Over the next week he tried to keep to himself and figure out how these wings worked. His room’s ceiling was too low to try to fly, but he couldn’t go out and risk someone seeing him and realizing he had wings. Which for some reason no one had realized he’d had before. It had to be some sort of spell or something, Magnus had never really understood magic but it was the only thing that made sense.

There wasn’t a lot that made sense right now, not with his thoughts the way they were. It was familiar in a way he didn’t like to think about, and Magnus felt like he could explode with the lack of things to do. He wasn’t able to punch through this problem, and it was beyond frustrating.

He was pretty sure wings and flying were supposed to be symbols of freedom and junk like that, but he just felt trapped.

——

Merle had it up to here with these two downers.

He’d barely seen either Magnus or Taako in the week since they got back from Refuge. At least with Taako he had an idea about what the problem was. Kid wasn’t taking too well to the new limbs. Merle couldn’t for the life of him understand why. He fell into them like it was second nature, but Taako didn’t seem as pleased.

Magnus though, he didn’t know what was up with him. He guessed the shit they’d seen in Refuge had stuck with him more than he expected. Still, he wasn’t going to just sit here and let these two waste all their time being sad and useless because of a few bad things.

“Alright, up and at em! Today’s the day,” Merle said, bursting into Magnus’s room as loudly as possible.

“Ah! Today’s the day for what Merle? To give me a heart attack?” Magnus shouted, jumping up from his bed. Merle didn’t let his complaining bother him any, waving away the frustration thrown at him.

“Today is the day for everyone to stop moping around, now get out here,” Merle said, heading back out of the room before Magnus could say anything. He went right over to Taako’s door, knocking loudly. “Come on pointy hat! Time to wake up,” he yelled.

“Hey, why does he get knocking when you just burst into my room?” Magnus asked, coming out into the living area.

“Because he locks his door and I left Bud in my bag,” Merle explained. It took a few more minutes of knocking before the door was thrown open suddenly, Taako looking none too pleased.

“The fuck? You better have a damn good reason for bothering me old man because I’m this close to blinking into the ethereal plane. I cannot deal with this,” he snapped.

“I do have a good reason! We’re gonna cheer you two sadsacks up,” Merle announced. He saw Taako already reaching for his umbrastaff and quickly continued. “Ah ah ah! Come on now at least give it a chance. We could all go back to that nice spa, or if you’re feeling tired of the moon we could go down to Goldcliff. You know that body tossing spot had a great view.”

Taako didn’t look thrilled by the idea, but he wasn’t halfway to casting a spell anymore, so that was a win.

“Wait, what do you mean  _ two _ sadsacks? The fuck’s wrong with Magnus?” Taako asked.

“Nothing, I don’t know what’s going on,” Magnus said. Merle knew that was a lie and was already debating whether or not to cast zone of truth.

“Eh, maybe he’s jealous that we have wings and he doesn’t, I don’t know what’s gotten up his ass,” Merle said, waving off Magnus’s denial.

“You have  _ what?” _ Magnus asked.

“Damn it old man!” Taako snapped, and whoops.

“Wait, did we not tell Magnus?” Merle asked, because it seemed weird to keep it from him. Honestly he didn’t see much reason to keep them from anyone, but he figured the subject was touchy for Taako. So he wasn’t throwing them in people’s faces, but he wasn’t purposefully hiding them either.

“I sure as shit didn’t,” Taako said, and huh. He guessed with how much they’d both been avoiding him Merle hadn’t realized he’d never gotten a chance to tell Mags about it.

“Oh, well, cats outta the bag now,” Merle said with a shrug.

“Wait wait wait, you guys- you both have wings? Like with feathers and shit?” Magnus asked. Before Merle could explain that yeah they did Magnus was next to him and swatting around behind his back. Then he was yanking on one of his wings.

“Ouch! Why do you both feel the need to do that?” Merle complained.

“Oh shit, you really have wings…” Magnus muttered, and there was something in his voice that took Merle a moment to place. Relief, although he couldn’t for the life of him understand why. “And Taako too?” he asked. As he stared at the elf Merle could tell from the expression on his face when they started to come into focus for him.

“Yes, okay, we’re both freaks of nature who have fucking  _ wings _ for some reason, can we forget about it now and go on with our lives?” Taako asked, sounding a hair away from storming back into his room.

“No! It’s-  _ guys,” _ Magnus said, finally letting go of Merle’s wing. He huffed slightly as it folded back into place behind his back, and when he looked at Magnus again there was that clear sense of relief on his face.

“Make that three weirdos with wings, because I’m right there with you dudes,” he said.

It took a moment, Merle had to force himself to concentrate on the spots behind Magnus’s back, but he knew what he was looking for now. Soon enough he could see two large brown wings stretched out behind the human.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Merle said at the same moment Taako shouted.

“Fuck all of this!”

——

Taako was not fucking happy about this in the slightest.

He was huddled up in the living room with the boner squad, trying to figure out why the  _ fuck _ they all had wings now.

He guessed if they figured out why they had wings that was one step towards figuring out how to get rid of them. That was the only reason why he was even bothering.

“Maybe it’s like a blessing or something? We did just get all holy and stuff from Istus,” Magnus said, but Taako was shaking his head at that.

“You think she would’ve forgotten to mention giving us  _ wings _ during that godly candlenights gift exchange? Hey Istus! You forgot to mention we’re all goddamn birds now!” he said, shouting the last part up at the sky. There wasn’t any sort of answer of fucking course.

“Maybe it was meant as a surprise?” Magnus said, but he sounded uncertain.

“No,” Taako insisted. He knew these couldn’t be some sort of blessing because they were fucking awful. Plus, he knew they had been around well before they’d met Istus.

“You know,” Merle started, and Taako was already dreading whatever explanation he was going to come up with. “Being a holy man, I’ve heard stories about people who are descended from celestials and gods who have the power to spontaneously grow wings,” he said, and Taako rolled his eyes.

“You mean aasimars my man? I fucking stole a spellbook from an aasimar as a kid they aren’t some mythical beast,” he said, and Merle just shrugged.

“Uh, yeah that’s a good theory and all Merle but isn’t it a little weird that we would  _ all _ be angel people without realizing it? Plus I’m pretty sure they’re able to like, put the wings away,” Magnus added.

“Fine fine! Everyone else gets to make up theories but let’s poke a million holes in old Merle's before it even gets up off the ground,” Merle complained.

“Make a less shitty theory and we won’t have to,” Magnus said. Taako wasn’t paying that much attention to them anymore though. He was trying to figure this bullshit out. He had the wings for as long as he’d been doing sizzle it up. It was hard to remember whether or not he saw feathers and shit before then. He couldn’t remember anything significant happening around that time though.

He couldn’t remember  _ anything _ around that time. He’d been traveling in caravans, and then he had Sizzle It Up almost completely up and running. It wasn’t something he questioned.

“Maybe it’s some sort of curse? Like a cool curse, but it’s gotta be magical right? Wings don’t just appear on people without it being magic,” Magnus said, and Taako nodded at that.

“Has to be magic,” he agreed. He already tried casting detect magic on his wings a hundred times at this point but nothing ever showed on them. But that didn’t mean magic wasn’t how they got there, it just meant that as they were now they were mundane flesh and blood.

“Why would someone curse us though?” Merle asked.

“I don’t know my man, it’s not like any of us have ever pissed off anyone in our lives, we’re just regular goddamn angels,” Taako said as sarcastically as possible.

“Ha! Angels,” Magnus said, fluffing his wings up.

“Fair point,” Merle relented, but Taako was still frowning. Why would someone curse them with wings they didn’t know where there until someone pointed them out? Why would they have all been cursed when he had these things way before he met Magnus and Merle. Why had Kravitz been able to see them without any issue?

“This doesn’t make any goddamn sense,” he snapped, really fucking fed up with this.

“No, we just need to think this through. Who was the first person we’ve seen with wings?” Magnus asked, and Taako huffed. He was tired of talking about this.

“Me, I found out first,” he said, but to his surprise Magnus was shaking his head.

“No, the first person we saw with wings was that Red Robe,” he said, and Taako sat up a little straighter at that. He guessed that was true. The one they kept running into had wings, and the dead one had the bony remnants of some before disintegrating.

“So you think this was his fault?” he asked and Magnus shrugged.

“I’m just saying, he’s the enemy and he’s really fucking weird and volatile and junk. It makes as much sense as anything,” he said, and reluctantly Taako nodded.

That didn’t explain why he’d had them for years, but he didn’t mention that fact.

“We should talk to the Director about this,” Magnus said, already standing up. When he stretched his wings stretched out behind him as well, and it was weird seeing how easily the two seemed to be adjusting to the new appendages.

Taako didn’t want to go to the Director, but he wanted answers about this. So reluctantly he got up and followed after the two, his wings scrunched as tight up to his back as possible.

——

Lucretia was never sure what to expect when the Reclaimers came into her office unannounced. She hadn’t seen much of them lately, and when they walked in she could tell there was a difference. Merle was pretty much the same as they last time they spoke, his posture better now that he was aware of his wings. Magnus also seemed to be standing a bit taller, now consciously holding his wings up behind him instead of letting them droop.

Taako’s were curled up as tight as he could manage, and despite their elegant swooping design it was a bit hard to get a good look at them. She hadn’t expected him to react so adversely to them, and she wasn’t sure why this was happening.

“Good afternoon boys, is there something I can help you with?” she asked, and Magnus quickly nodded. He had a serious expression on his face, and it was rare to get him in such a state.

“Yes Madame Director. I’m pretty sure Merle told you about the whole wing thing he’s got going on now?” Magnus asked.

“He did, I’ve been looking into what could be the cause of something like that, but I’ve yet to find anything,” she said. She’d been hoping there would be a bit more time for her to come up with a believable lie before they confronted her.

“Well, I think the situation just got a bit more serious because Taako and I are birds now too,” he said, and she nodded once again.

“I’ve noticed,” she said.

“Right, and uh, we’ve been trying to figure out what it might be and it’s gotta be magic right? Like a curse or something,” Magnus said. Lucretia was thankful at them coming up with their own solutions. It was always easier to build off of that.

“That would make sense, I’ll look into it and see what I can find,” she said, and that seemed to satisfy them somewhat.

“Uh, there’s one other thing,” Magnus said, and considering everything Lucretia wasn’t surprised he was the one taking the lead here. Merle often hung back and Taako didn’t look to be in the best shape right now. “The Red Robe we saw, he had wings. Maybe they have something to do with this,” he said and she sighed heavily.

“For our sake, I hope not,” she said, and with that they left her office. It was always so quiet whenever they left, and Lucretia felt her wings unfurl some behind her. She hadn’t realized she’d had them bound up so tightly, like she was afraid of them noticing.

Thankfully that didn’t seem to be an issue. They wouldn’t notice unless someone pointed them out.

More than ever she found herself tempted to do just that. They already knew so much though, anything else she let slip might be the one thing they needed to pull it all together.

Unless she managed to twist it to suit her.

Pulling out a fresh notebook, she started to get to work on a believable lie.

It was three days later when she pulled them back into her office, her idea solidified. She wanted to be honest with her family again, in whatever warped form it took.

“I’ve been looking into the curse,” she said once the door was closed and it was just the five of them. From a cursory glance it seemed like they were doing somewhat better. Taako’s wings were still curled in too close, but he had his unreadable face on again.

“So you’re sure it’s a curse and not some cosmic blessing for all the really cool shit we’ve done?” Merle asked, and Lucretia shook her head.

“I’m afraid it’s looking more in the curse category,” she said, and she let her wings unfold behind her to their full span. There wasn’t any notice from the three, so she knew they couldn’t see them yet.

“There are powerful magics that can permanently alter someone’s form, as I’m sure you’re aware Taako, being a transmutation expert,” she said, and the elf nodded.

“Hell yeah, that’s my jam,” he said, although his heart didn’t sound in it.

“Well, where there are powerful magics there’s always someone out there trying to twist those magics. Magnus you said that you think this might be the fault of the Red Robes, and I’m inclined to believe that as well. I’m not sure why, but the will and reasoning behind the Red Robes always seemed to be powerful magic for the sake of powerful magic,” she said, pausing to make sure they were all paying attention.

“I believe this is a curse that is designed to spread to those who talk about it or become aware of it’s existence. Because well, it’s affected me,” she said. There was a long moment where they were staring at her, or not directly at her, but just behind her. She could see the moment where the wings must’ve become visible to them.

“Well tits,” Magnus said, clearly at a loss.

“Unfortunately it also seems to have affected Davenport,” she said, and the same process went down as they became aware of the gnomes overlarge wins.

“How do we stop this from spreading Director? Not that it’s not cool and all but if it’s a curse it’s probably best to contain it, right?” Magnus asked.

“I believe it’ll be contained if we simply don’t let anyone else become aware of it. Luckily it doesn’t seem like they’re noticeable if not pointed out or used in too obvious a way, so it shouldn’t be hard,” she said.

This was working. They believed her and they could move forward from here. She could explain the truth when this was all over. For now though, it was an improvement.

——

Magnus liked to think that things were improving. It’d only been a few weeks, but as far as they could tell no one else had gotten unwanted wings after the Director and Davenport. They’d been careful not to let anything slip, which was more difficult than one would expect when dealing with magic invisible wings.

For one thing, he was aware of them now, so he couldn’t just ignore them. Most of the time it wasn’t an issue, but the Director had started their training for the next mission, and he couldn’t  _ not _ use them in combat.

He hadn’t tried to fly yet, but after one particularly long jump Carey asked how he managed to get an  _ eight foot vertical leap. _ Which wasn’t great for keeping things on the down low.

So, he was following the Director to the trial of initiation chamber. “There won’t be any ogres, at least not this time,” she said as she led him and Merle in. Taako had decided not to come. Said he didn’t need to go to special wing training because he could turn into a bird if he wanted to anyway, flying wasn’t a big deal for him, go the fuck away.

“It is secluded though, and the ceilings are high enough if you want to try any sick stunts, so go hog wild I suppose,” she said. As soon as she finished speaking Magnus barreled past her, wings spread out and already starting to flap. With a running leap he jumped into the air, letting out a ‘whoop!’ as he managed to catch himself.

It wasn’t like how he always imagined it to be, effortless and freeing. It was definitely freeing, but it took more energy than he expected, his wings aching already like when you do stretches and use muscles you hadn’t used in fuck knows how long. It was  _ working _ though, and there was a moment where he couldn’t stop laughing.

He might not of been paying attention to where he was going though or how high up he was. One of his wings knocked into the walkway that spanned the ceiling of the room and set him off balance. He heard the Director shout in concern as he fumbled and fell to the ground.

Magnus liked to think that he managed to catch himself somewhat in the air, but that didn’t stop him from tumbling head over ass into the sand pit below.

“Owww,” he whined, slowly picking himself up off the ground.

“Eh, walk it off,” Merle called out to him.

“You’re a cleric you could do something!” Magnus shouted back.

“Nah,” Merle said simply, and Magnus rolled his eyes. He was still smiling from the exhilarating flight though.

He had a feeling he was going to like having wings.

—

Merle felt like he was starting to get a hand of the whole wings thing. At least, he had a better grasp of it than he had at first, so that was something.

The training probably helped some, even if one third of their party couldn’t be bothered to go most of the time. Sure he went to the regular training, they were the only time he left the dorm because the Director wouldn’t let him get out of those. He was always skipping out on working up their wing shit though.

“You’re sure you’re not gonna come? I’ve got something cool in store today,” he pressed at Taako’s closed bedroom door. He was tempted to get Bud to unlock it, but he wasn’t feeling up to his insults or up to being blasted by magic missile.

“Positive.  _ Some _ of us actually have lives and shit they want to get to,” Taako called, and Merle kind of doubted that. He knew the kid was barely leaving his room nowadays.

“Fine, fine. Well you’re free to come if your oh so busy schedule ever clears up,” Merle said. There wasn’t any answer from Taako, and so he went off to the training area. Magnus was already there, and he’d gotten better at the whole flying thing since that first attempt.

Merle felt like his own style of flight was somehow still more akin to waddling, but what else was new.

They went through a few of their regular drills first, and the training was kinda dull with only two people. Still, Merle felt like he had something pretty nifty up his sleeve today.

“Alright Mags, stand there. I’ve been cooking up something  _ pretty cool _ if I do say so myself,” he said, Magnus instantly looking nervous.

“Okay…” he said.

“Shabadoo!” Merle shouted, casting a spell at Magnus. It didn’t seem to do anything but give a slight glimmer to his wings.

“You know, I think Taako would appreciate this more than me, but cool?”

“Fold them up in front of you,” Merle instructed. Magnus slowly did as he was told, and as soon as he was in position Merle lobbed a sacred flame at him. Like he hoped, the flames spilled off of the wings without causing any damage. “Neat, wasn’t sure if that would work.”

“Hey! Don’t use me as a test dummy,” Magnus objected, and then seemed to realize what had happened. “Hey wait, did you just turn my wings into a shield?”

“Pretty cool, right?” Merle asked, Magnus quickly agreeing.

“Holy shit Merle, you made an actual useful spell!”

“Yeah! Hey, why do you sound so surprised?” Merle asked, but Magnus ignored him. They continued training with that, testing out the new shielding spell a few more times. Merle wasn’t one to usually experiment with spells like that, at least not successfully. It usually backfired or didn’t work at all.

For some reason though, this one had felt so natural to learn. It seemed as standard as any of his other classic spells.

He decided not to question it any. This was just a lucky break. It wasn’t like they hadn’t earned it.

——

Taako didn’t trust this.

He didn’t know what everyone else was playing, but none of it added up. A curse from the Red Robe was all fine and good, but Taako hadn’t  _ known _ the Red Robes back during Sizzle It Up. Neither of them had told Magnus about their wings, but he’d already had them when they revealed theirs.

The director hadn’t even offered up any proof of her idea. Not some spells or precedent or anything. Just the fact that she and Davenport had wings now too.

Taako didn’t know what was going on, but he was withholding his trust for now.

He was  _ also _ withholding his patience, because he had tried everything and nothing was  _ working. _

He just wanted to cook. Merle and Magnus were out training like always, and he’d been trying to get back into cooking after finding out the truth. It should be simple. Not his fault, not his problem anymore.

He blamed it on the wings. Get rid of one problem and a new one pops up in its place.

The first time he tried to cook he had them out, and they kept getting in the way. Feathers kept getting everywhere and he couldn’t fucking have that.

So he tried shit. Tried tying them down, and it helped some. They stopped banging into shit for the most part, but the feathers were still an issue. Plus, he kept catching his reflection in all the reflective surfaces of the kitchen. It wasn’t-

The sight of the wings, bound up and ruffled behind his back was even more unnerving than when they were out free.

The solution to that? Tie them up, then wrap a sheet around them and tie that on. Perfect. No more feathers getting everywhere, no more need to look at ugly bound wings. Just peace and cooking without any interruptions.

Except he could feel the sheet falling off one of his wings, but it was at an angle he couldn’t see. The mage hand he cast to tie it back in place was just making everything worse.

And then there was a rip, like someone tearing a hole between dimensions and Taako groaned.

“Taako? I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Kravitz asked as he came through the portal.

“Oh no, not at all,” Taako said, giving up with the mage hand. And the food. Just fucking everything. “You know, I gave you my stone frequency. Coulda called ahead.”

“Oh. I actually forgot about that,” Kravitz admitted, and at least he had the decency to look embarrassed. “I haven’t had to use a stone in a long time.”

“Course not. Well, cha’ boy actually happens to be free so you’re in luck,” he said, letting himself lean forward onto the counter. He had to focus, this was actually an important conversation, figuring out what was going on with their deaths and Refuge.

“Um, are you okay?” Kravitz asked, and of course they couldn’t just cut to the chase.

“Fucking fantastic, why?”

“You have a blanket tied around your wings?” Kravitz questioned, pointing behind him. Taako felt the sheet slipping a bit more and had to bite back a curse.

“They don’t make hairnets in size ‘giant fuckoff wings’ okay? I just don’t want any feathers in my goddamn casserole, is that too much to ask?” he snapped and Kravitz quickly shook his head.

“No, that’s very fair,” he said, and hopefully that would be the end of it. They did end up talking about Refuge some more. Taako managed to finish explaining what had happened when they were getting the relic. He’d been interrupted in the middle last time. He was pretty sure they’d be able to get through this interaction without getting back on the wing subject.

“So…” apparently not. Kravitz kept glancing behind him again. “Those aren’t normal, are they?”

“You know, you are real fucking bad at this,” Taako said, even though he wasn’t sure what ‘this’ was. He didn’t need Kravitz’s help with this. He was getting on fine.

Not going to training. Or leaving his room. Or looking at himself in the mirror without them wrapped in a fucking comforter.

“I’m sorry,” Kravitz apologized. “I don’t know the full story here, but I didn’t mean anything negative by it.” Taako wanted to roll his eyes at that, but the weird thing was that he actually sounded genuine.

“Well I don’t know the full story either, so that makes two of us. Apparently it’s some sort of curse, I don’t know,” he wasn’t buying it, but it was the only explanation they had.

“A curse?” Kravitz asked, and Taako couldn’t tell if he seemed to believe it or not. He didn’t say anything for a moment, seeming to think it over. “Well, if it is a curse, it’s a fitting one.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Taako snapped. Maybe he was being harsh, but he wasn’t  _ happy _ about this shit.

“Nothing, they just suit you is all. You look good with wings,” Kravitz said, and he didn’t seem to be lying or bullshitting him or anything. Taako wasn’t even sure why he would need to. He was death and he had Taako alone. He could drag him straight down to ghost jail if he really wanted to.

“I mean, it probably looks better without a blanket half wrapped around them but that’s uh, your choice,” he added, and Taako almost laughed at that.

“You work for the bird lady right? The Raven Queen? So is this just like, real good for you? Is this your shit?” he asked, hoping to tease. From the flustered expression on Kravitz’s face he succeeded.

“No, it’s not- please don’t call her  _ bird lady,” _ he insisted. It didn’t seem like he was really annoyed though. He looked pretty amused actually, even more so as Taako just sat there and grinned at him. “You’re a very strange person, you know that?”

“Yeah, but you’re the one that’s into it,” Taako said, really hoping he wasn’t reading this wrong.

“We should get back to discussing the death tolls,” Kravitz said, an obvious deflection. Yeah, he’d been right on the money with that one.

Taako felt the sheet slipping off his wings some more, and if it came any more undone Kravitz would probably start to see the rope binding his wings together inside. His first instinct was to try to pull it back into place, but he stopped himself after a moment.

The only person who could see his wings right now was Kravitz, and he didn’t mind them. Taako still wasn’t sure if he’d say they suited him, but for some unfathomable reason it seemed to help.

“Yeah, we should get back to business, shouldn’t we?” he said, pushing himself up from the counter. “But, how about somewhere else? There’s this new joint in the bureau I’ve been meaning to check out.”

“Um, I suppose that wouldn’t hurt?” Kravitz said, and he sounded confused but he was still going along with it.

“Cool, gimme a minute to change and get myself situated and we’ll head right out,” Taako said, moving back to his room. Kravitz gave a quick affirmative before Taako shut his bedroom door.

It took longer than he would’ve liked to unwrap his wings, and they still didn’t look great, even after he brushed all the feathers back down. No one else could see them but Kravitz though, and for some reason he didn’t mind. Throwing on a nicer top and the flowiest pair of pants he had he headed back out.

“You, um, look nice,” Kravitz said, and Taako couldn’t help but be pleased by that.

“Natch,” he said, and then stopped for a moment. “Hey, no one else can see the wings. Weird side affect, so just, don’t mention em.”

“Not a problem,” Kravitz said, and with that Taako started to lead him out of the dorm. “So, what place are we going to exactly?”

“It’s called the Chug ‘n Squeeze,” Taako said, not hiding the absolute glee in his voice.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?”

“Not at all my man.”

——

Angus McDonald was the world’s greatest detective. It wasn’t very hard for him to realize there was something going on with the reclaimers.

At first he thought they were taking some time to recover from their last mission. It had seemed like a tough one, so it made sense. Things started not to add up with that though, not completely.

The first few weeks after getting the chalice Angus hadn’t seen Taako at all. It wasn’t like him to take the missions that hard. Hell, it wasn’t like him to take  _ anything _ that hard. Magnus and Merle were acting a little odd too, but it was nothing that really caught his attention until the private training started.

At least, that’s what he figured it was. They would go off sometimes, it hadn’t taken him long to figure out it was to the trail of initiation area. He’d ‘just happened to be walking by’ one time when they were coming out and asked what they had been doing in there. Magnus had said it was some extra training, but didn’t elaborate.

It was obvious they were hiding something. Angus just wondered if it was related to whatever had Taako locking himself away.

The few times he’d tried to talk to the elf he was even more cagey than usual, and that was when he could get him to talk at all.

And then something changed. Angus wasn’t sure what, because he’d yet to find out what had been causing the problem, but Taako started coming out more again. There was still something a little guarded, he seemed a little more huddled in on himself. Angus was almost worried that he was hurt in some way and was trying to hide it. Surely Merle and Magnus would’ve noticed and made him do something about it though, right?

The next big change though was that Taako started joining the secret training. It wasn’t every time, but once or twice now Angus had seen him going in with them.

He needed to see what they were doing in there.

Angus waited until the next time all three of them went into the initiation chamber. He’d already scoped it out in his free time, and he managed to find a place he was rather sure no one would notice him. Sneaking inside through a maintenance door Angus carefully situated himself on the small runway that crossed the ceiling. He was hidden up here among all the bright lights, they wouldn’t be able to see him, but he could see them.

At first it just looked like normal training, the three honing their fighting and magics for their next relic mission.

And then he swore for a moment Magnus was flying through the air. It had taken him by surprise, but there was no reason he guessed that Taako couldn’t cast fly on him. He just must’ve missed him casting it.

He didn’t recognize the shield spell Merle kept casting, but he guessed he needed to brush up on his cleric magics.

Gods, he could tell something wasn’t right though. The way they were moving was so different from how he’d seen them fight before. Even when Magnus had been levitating on the Rockport limited, that might’ve been the closet but it was still wrong somehow.

If only he could get a closer look at what they were doing. This ceiling was so high up.

Leaning forward, Angus put a hand on one of the spotlights to keep balance. Instead of holding his weight it smoothly spun away from him.

Angus didn’t have time to think as he tumbled forward, nothing but air beneath him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's Fine 
> 
> thanks again to darkrystalsky for the continued request! i'm loving it so much that the chapter number keeps going up because what is restraint. 
> 
> as always thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy~


	3. Chapter 3

Taako still wasn’t pleased with his wings, but he was getting used to them if nothing else.

He hadn’t tried using them yet or anything, honestly he preferred not thinking about them at all if he could help it. He wasn’t locking himself in his room anymore though. After all it was dumb to hide because of something that most people couldn’t see anyway.

And maybe his talk with Kravitz helped more than he wanted to admit. Wasn’t anyone’s business why he was feeling better.

Whatever the reason, he was doing more shit. Which apparently meant Merle and Magnus figured they could drag him along to their dumb extra training now. He didn’t see the use in it, he wasn’t gonna be using his wings. He had other means of flying if it came down to it, but whatever. Merle figured out a way to turn them into shields, that might be useful. Pan knows his armor class sucked.

So Taako had been hanging back during the whole training regiment. He was only paying enough attention so that Magnus couldn’t try to do a sneak attack.

It was probably because he wasn’t paying much attention to the actual training that he noticed right away. His eyes shot up at the flash of movement above them.

Taako wasn’t sure how he even had the time to process what he was seeing before he was moving. He knew he wasn’t processing what he was doing, because if he was he would’ve cast a spell or some shit. Instead he was in the air, wings carrying him with surprising ease. It felt like muscle memory, like when he would go on autopilot while cooking certain meals. He more collided with Angus’s falling body than caught him, but it was enough to grab a hold. By the time he managed to get them both stumbling on the ground Angus had wrapped his arms tight around him.

It was silent for a moment as Taako realized what happened, still pretty confused about a lot of it.

And then it was very loud as everyone started shouting at once.

“Angus what the  _ fuck?” _

“Holy shit Taako!”

“I’m sorry sirs! I didn’t- I, uh-”

“Whoa, first time flying and you’re already better than Magnus.”

“Excuse me! That was gliding at  _ most!” _

“Wait sirs what are you talking about?”

“Can everyone shut up for ten seconds!” Taako shouted, pinching the bridge of his nose, his wings curled back up as far as they could go again. This was so stupid. Everyone was quiet though, but now they were all staring at him.

“Angus, what the fuck were you doing up there?” he asked, because maybe that would distract from everything he’d done.

“I wanted to know what the special secret training was for, I’m really sorry,” he apologized again. Taako could see Merle open his mouth to speak, and so he sighed loudly before he could. He needed to cut this all off before anyone said too much.

“Next magic lesson we’re doing feather fall because  _ seriously,”  _ he huffed, and Angus nodded quickly.

“Man, I can’t believe the first time you use your wings you’re able to do a sick air stunt and catch a whole kid. I’m still running into walls and junk,” Magnus grumbled, and Taako could  _ see  _ the fucking detective mode switch in Angus.

“Wings? What are you talking about?” he asked, and Taako was already glaring daggers at Magnus.

“Nothing! Shut the fuck up,” Taako said, smacking the back of Magnus’ head.

“Ouch! Wait shit, yeah no it’s nothing don’t worry about it,” Magnus said quickly, but it was too fucking late. He could see the gears working in the kid’s head. There was a flash of surprise across his face and Taako knew he could fucking see them now.

“Oh my gosh sir! You have wings!” he said, pointing to Taako and he could sink into the floor.

“Damn it, yeah. Thanks a lot Magnus,” he said, and at least the fighter looked sheepish about all this.

“Whoops, sorry! Uh, since the cat’s out of the bag, if it helps me and Merle have wings too,” Magnus explained, and rinse and repeat as Angus as able to see theirs as well. Taako didn’t see any point in hiding this from Angus now that he knew, so they explained everything they knew about this to him.

Taako still wasn’t sure what was going on after all, and if anyone could figure it out it was Angus.

“Wait, shit,” Magnus said once they finished explaining. “If this spreads to everyone we talk to about this, won’t Angus get wings too now?” he asked.

“Oh, I didn't think about that, maybe?” he said, sounding a little nervous about the prospect, which was fair. “That would be a good thing to look out for in the next few days to see if this curse theory is correct,” he added.

And so they waited.

After a week Angus still didn’t have any wings, and Taako was certain something wasn’t right.

“It doesn’t make any sense, the director and Davenport got their wings only a few days later,” Magnus said, and they were all gathered up again.

“Maybe he’s just a freak,” Merle said, and Taako rolled his eyes.

“Well, I wouldn’t-” Angus cut in.

“Maybe it’s not some dumb curse,” Taako mumbled. It drew more attention that he would’ve liked, the three staring at him. Huffing, he shrugged, reluctantly continuing. “Just doesn’t make sense. It’s like, ugh,” he didn’t want to be talking about this. “I’m pretty sure I’ve had these for a while. Way longer than we’ve known the Red Robes at the least,” he said.

“What do you mean sir?” Angus asked, clearly intrigued.

“Just that I think I’ve had them for a while, before I met you fucks. There’s been feathers and shit. They were always a real problem during my cooking show,” he explained. 

“Why didn’t you mention that before?” Angus asked, which was a valid question.

“Didn’t think it was important,” he muttered. That wasn’t entirely true, but it was as much as he wanted to say.

“It seems kinda important sir,” Angus said.

"Whatever, I mentioned it now," Taako said, huffing. Maybe it would've helped but they still needed to see if it would affect Angus, and now they knew it didn't.

"So, if it's not a curse, then what is it?" Magnus asked, and Angus was frowning intently at the question.

"I'm not sure sirs, but we're going to figure it out."

——

Merle walked through the park with Mavis and Mookie. It was one of his semi-weekly semi-monthly visits, and he knew that he should keep certain things hidden. There had been a buncha talks about how they needed to keep the wings a secret for this and that reason.

They still didn’t understand the specifics, but the spreading might not work like they thought. Merle was no expert in this sort of thing, but it seemed like keeping them a secret wasn't as big a priority in that case. So letting it slip to a few important people didn’t seem like the worst idea in the world.

“Hey, so you know something really cool’s happened to your old man recently,” Merle said.

“Whatcha mean? I want cool things!” Mookie asked, bouncing up and down in front of him. Mavis looked less excited but Merle was pretty sure she was just trying to seem cool.

“Well, it’s kinda like a magic trick. Look behind me and focus real hard, and you should be able to see some wings,” he told them, a huge smile on his face. Mookie and Mavis both stared behind him like he said, Mookie excited and Mavis skeptical. He saw the moment they were able to see the wings on their faces, and Mookie looked just as excited as he expected.

They didn’t look as surprised as he would’ve thought though.

“I get it from you!” Mookie shouted, jumping up and hanging off of his shoulders.

“He  _ does _ get it from you,” Mavis said, sounding astonished.

“Uh, what do you mean by that kiddos?” Merle asked, pulling Mookie around from where he’d been trying to climb on his wings. He was pretty sure they weren’t supposed to hold up that much weight.

“I gots wings too! Look dad!” Mookie said, twisting around so that Merle was looking at his back. Sure enough when he took the backpack and jacket off of him there were these two little stubs of wings.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Merle said, placing Mookie back down. “Does uh, does your mother know about this?” he asked, and Mavis nodded.

“Oh yeah, she kinda figured it had something to do with you. She guessed it was aasimar blood or something like that?” she explained. Merle quickly nodded, going along with that guess.

“Right right, I have an uncle that’s like, 2/3rds aasimar, it’s  _ definitely  _ something like that,” he said. He guessed he was lucky that Mavis didn’t seem to know enough to argue with him over that. “Now fireball, you need to take good care of those wings ya here? And don’t go jumping off buildings until they get a little stronger,” he added, figuring it was a good time to offer some of his sagely advice.

“I jumped outta window! The wings don’t work yet!” Mookie excitedly told him.

“Mom wasn’t happy about that,” Mavis informed, and Merle chuckled a bit awkwardly.

“Yeah, I doubt she liked that,” he said. The rest of the visit with his kids went well, and Merle tried not to think too much about what that whole wing thing meant. He’d say he wasn’t exactly the brains of their operation, but they didn’t have much of one to begin with.

Whatever was going on with the things, Merle couldn’t get it in himself to think of them as a bad thing. So, he wasn’t worried.

He was sure it would be fine.

—

Taako was pretty surprised about how things were going. Despite every warning telling him to take a step back, hold up, Taako’s good out here, things actually seemed okay. At least in certain aspects of his life.

Or one. One specific aspect of his life.

Things with Kravitz were pretty damn good. Better than they had any right to be honestly. Sure, Taako didn’t know what the fuck was up with his wings, the director was pushing their training harder and harder, and things had been kinda shitty in general lately. With this one thing though, it was alright. More than alright. He’d go so far as to say he was kinda happy.

And so maybe he was letting Kravitz get a bit closer to him than he normally would with most people. It wasn’t important if he didn’t make a big deal about it. They were dating, some casual contact was pretty normal.

If Kravitz happened to be the only person he really let touch his wings, he didn’t have to mention it. 

“So, your body is like a construct right? I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you couldn’t melt your face off when you were alive,” Taako asked. It was a rare moment where he had some actual peace and quiet, and he and Kravitz were chilling in his bed. Kravitz was running his hands lazily through his wings. They seemed like the only things Kravitz was super comfortable touching with his bare hands, since Taako assured him all the fluff made the cold thing not an issue.

“No, I was not a living skeleton man, how come?” Kravitz asked. Taako still kept his wings pretty close to his frame, but he let them relax somewhat as he worked his fingers into them.

“Was just wondering how much you can change yourself up. You did that crystal golem thing, you got any other tricks up your sleeves?” he asked.

“The crystals was more of a possession thing. I can change my form though, but this is what I actually look like so I prefer to keep that face when I’m not on the job,” he explained. Taako nodded, it made sense.

“So, how much of a change are we talking here?”

“I can turn into a raven? That’s probably the most extreme one that I do regularly,” Kravitz said, and Taako snorted in amusement.

“Of course you do, dramatic motherfucker,” he laughed. “So uh, do you gotta go full bird or can you do just parts, or what’s the story there?” he asked.

“Is this a furry thing?” Kravitz asked, and his voice was serious but when Taako turned back to look at him it was obvious he was trying to bite down a laugh. Instead of twisting around all the way to smack him Taako unfolded one of his wings and let it swat him in the face.

“No you dork, it’s not a furry thing,” Taako insisted. He was pretty damn sure Kravitz was still smiling despite the wing to the face. “I was wondering if you could give yourself wings kemosabe. We could be one of those obnoxious matching couples,” he said, and Kravitz chuckled some at that.

“I never tried to before, I can fly without wings. I doubt it would be a problem though,” he said. As he spoke Taako felt Kravitz take the wing he’d smacked him with and start to run his fingers up and along it, massaging gently into the feathers. Taako sighed and leaned back into the touch some more.

“Well if whatever’s keeping these things a secret wears off you should try it,” he said, relaxing a bit more as Kravitz pulled loose feathers out for him.

“That sounds fun,” he said, and Taako nodded, letting himself enjoy the sensation of someone taking care of his wings. He was kind of shit at it himself, because he tried to get it over with as soon as possible. Barely unfurling them enough to do some quick brushing and shit. Kravitz was taking his time and running his fingers though the feathers and the whole thing was relaxing as fuck. He hadn’t felt something so calming since he last got a massage. It’d been a while since he got one too, since he couldn’t go back after the wings appeared.

Wait. This felt a lot like the massage from that lady at the spa. A  _ lot _ like that. Way too much like it to be a coincidence.

“Is everything alright?” Kravitz asked. He stopped running his hands through Taako’s wings, and he sounded worried. Taako hadn’t realized how much he’d frozen up then.

“Yeah, no we’re good dog. I thought of something is all,” he said, trying to get himself to relax again. “Not important though, I’ll deal with it later. Let’s just keep hanging out, alright?” he asked, and Kravitz cautiously starting to work at his wings again.

“Of course, if that’s what you want,” he said, and Taako nodded emphatically at that.

“For sure,” he said. He’d have to talk to someone about this later. Things weren’t fucking adding up, and he was going to figure this out.

——

Angus was trying his best to sleuth out the answer to this mystery, but there seemed to be something off with every explanation he had. He was the world’s greatest detective though, so it was only a matter of time before he cracked this case too.

Still, it was giving him more difficulty than he would have liked.

He couldn’t pinpoint how long they had wings for, so there was no way to put a time frame on the curse. If it even was a curse. It hadn’t spread to him, which cast some heavy doubt on that theory. Even still, they couldn't rule out the possibility of it spreading under other factors.

He knew they couldn’t risk someone else being dragged into this curse if there were ways it could. Angus wanted to try to test the threshold of how many hints were enough before someone realized. Just what were the parameters that caused someone to be able to see the wings? He didn’t know, and he wasn’t even sure if it would help in his case, but he didn’t have a whole lot of leads to go off of.

They hadn’t spread to him though, so it wasn’t universal.

Angus knew one person that definitely wouldn’t have to worry about growing wings though. You can't grow something if you don't have a body, after all.

“Good afternoon Noelle!” he said happily, bounding up to the regulator.

“Well hey there Ango. What can I do for ya?” Noelle asked. Angus didn’t want to give away his whole thing right off the bat. Still, it was a good idea to give her some clue of what he was doing.

“I’m actually looking into a theory for a mystery right now, and I was wondering if you could help me test something,” he said. Noelle didn’t have much of a head to nod, but she bobbed some where she was hovering.

“Well that sounds like fun, what kinda theory?” she asked.

“I was just wondering if you noticed anything strange about the reclaimers lately,” he said.

“Hmm, I mean, they’re a pretty strange bunch on the regular, not sure what you mean,” she said, and that was fair. They were indeed very strange.

“Just anything about them, for as long as you’ve known them honestly. Um, physically, I guess to be precise,” he said, hoping he wouldn’t have to get anymore specific than that.

“Anything strange physically,” she said, seeming to think over the question for a bit. “Well, I mean, I try not to judge, specially on physical things considering I’m a robot now and all,” she added and Angus nodded.

“Of course! Maybe strange is the wrong word. Um, unique?” he tried instead.

“Well, they’re the only people I’ve ever seen with wings I guess, but other than that they seem like normal folks to me,” Noelle said, and Angus was stunned silent for a moment.

He… didn’t think she’d just  _ say _ that.

“Wait, you can see the wings? You’ve been able to see them  _ the whole time?” _ he asked, whipping out his notepad.

“Uh, yeah?” Noelle said, sounding pretty confused.

“And you never mentioned them to anyone? Or asked them about it?” he pressed.

“Well geeze, I figured it’d be rude of me. Like, I’m not gonna go up to Carey like ‘so those scales am I right?' No one ever said anything about em so I figured it wasn’t a big deal,” she said, and Angus was still a bit flabbergasted, but that made sense.

“Um, okay that’s fair,” he said. This wasn’t how he expected this talk to go at all.

“Did this help with your experiment?” Noelle asked.

“Oh! Yes, it did a lot, thanks a bunch,” Angus said, giving her a quick nod before dashing off. He could’ve stayed and asked her more questions, but knowing that she was able to see the wings with no issues at all was enough for now. It was a much bigger clue than he expected to get.

He’d been heading to his room to do research, but as he rounded a corner he slammed into someone. Taking a moment to orient himself, he a flustered Taako in front of him.

“Sorry sir! I had a break in the case and I wanted to start working on it right away,” he said, and Taako nodded. He looked pretty distracted though.

“Which case?”

“Uh, the wings one?” Angus said, and he guessed it was a fair question. This was the most pressing one at the moment, but that didn’t mean he never had others.

“Oh, well what a coincidence. I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Taako told him, which was a surprise. Taako seemed more than willing to pretend the whole thing didn’t exist most of the time. 

“Really?” he asked. Taako nodded, glancing around the empty hallway they were in before speaking again.

“Yeah, I… have you ever been to the spa on base?”

Several hours of discussion and investigation later, Angus didn’t know what to think. There was something going on here, something deeper than a simple curse. He wasn’t sure where this mystery was going, but he knew two things for sure.

The living dead could see the wings without an issue, just like they’re able to work past the voidfish’s static.

The woman who worked at the spa and tended to their wings did not exist.

——

Lucretia sighed as the door to her office closed and she was left in silence once again. She’d prepared them as much as she possibly could. She’d stalled as much as she could as well, there wasn’t any choices left to make.

She just had to believe that they would be able to make it through Wonderland. That she’d done enough to help them. That even though they weren’t as strong as she knew they could be, not like they were when she’d wiped their memories away, together they could do it.

She hoped that Wonderland wouldn’t take anything too irreparable from them. That they wouldn’t give away things they didn’t realize the significance of due to the memories she’d stolen.

She’d been trying not to ruminate on her own experience through Wonderland too much. Thinking about it would only make her worry more. Despite her best efforts, the memories were at the front of her mind as she counted the hours they had for them to reclaim the relic and return before the end of the world.

Wonderland had broken her down, more than she could’ve imagined. She couldn’t tell if it was the power of the animus bell, or if it was the liches’ own twisted magic. Whatever it was, it left her with aches and pains she wasn’t used to after her rapid change in age.

The companion she’d brought in with her wasn’t any better off. He was missing an arm and was forced to sacrifice some of his living essence as he spun the wheel this round.

“Hey, if I land on hand again and you take my other arm I don’t have to spin anymore, right?” he joked, and there was something painfully familiar about the way he tried to keep the situation light despite how horrible everything was.

Lucretia didn’t say anything, stepping forward and spinning the wheel.

“Body,” she said as it landed, and she heard the two voices humming in thought.

“Let’s see, how about we mix it up this time, shall we? After all, you have such a  _ unique _ body,” the female voice said.

“Yes, it’s quite unlike any we’ve had wander through here before. I wonder if you would be willing to change that, to make yourself like everyone else on this little planet of ours,” the other voice said.

“Lucretia, what are they talking about?” Cam asked, and she felt bad ignoring him but they didn’t have the time to explain. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted to explain.

“For this sacrifice Lucretia, we’ll be taking your wings,” the male voice said. Lucretia stared down at the wheel, her wings pressed up against her back and her grip deathly tight on her staff.

She hadn’t used her wings more than absolutely necessary since they came to this planet. Not at all since she started her quest for the relics. This was their home now, and no one else had wings here.

No one else, except for her family. The wings were the one thing she had that still connected her to them, besides her memories.

“No,” she said simply, and she could see Cam’s head whip towards her.

“Lucretia, what are you doing? We can’t afford another penalty. I don’t- what do they even mean by wings? What’s going on here?” he pressed, and she could understand why he was questioning her on this. From an outside perspective it made no sense.

“Are you sure? You might want to listen to your friend, after all, teamwork is  _ so important, _ isn’t it Lucretia?” the female voice taunted.

“I said no, I’ll take the penalty,” she said, and she could see Cam deflating some besides her. Across the room, another red mark appeared on top of the door.

“Now, don’t fret, you’re doing so good! You’re almost to the bonus round,” the male voice said.

Ignoring everyone else around her, Lucretia spun again.

——

Magnus hated wonderland. He was pretty sure that was a rather universal feeling though.

They destroyed it though, and now they were out. Of course, his body was also destroyed, which sucked.

There was something else wrong though. Something big and jumbled that he couldn’t make sense of. If he could feel in this damn mannequin body would be clawing at the inside of his skull.

He kept remembering things. Small bits of past flickering across his mind, and it felt like the tiny edges of some huge incoming storm. Instead of focusing on the feeling of looming dread, he focused on the bits and pieces of things coming back to him. Small things, innocuous ones.

There was a planet with a purple sky and two suns. It was where he was from, and he didn’t try to think about how he’d gotten from there to here. This planet wasn’t his home though, and there was something as clear as the mismatched sky that signified that.

When he was a kid he defended a dog from some bullies. He could remember those kids, all older and bigger than he was. Their wings had been much larger than his own, one of them was even able to fly already, but he was still land bound.

The other kids had wings, and so had he.

Everyone had, on that planet he was from. He could remember his parents with wings now, both strong and broad and showing clear signs of use. He could remember his dad telling him his wings would probably be even larger than his own someday.

It hadn’t been some kind of curse. He’d always had those wings.

Except not anymore, because his body had been destroyed.

He was in a bit of a daze as they made their way with the red robe. He wasn’t sure if he could trust him. He knew he probably shouldn’t trust him, but there was something there that made him want to.

He had wings too. Maybe he was also from that two sunned planet.

Magnus was pretty sure he was prepared for anything at that point, but somehow he was still surprised when Barry Bluejeans came stumbling out of the weird body pod.

He had wings too. Not broken and skeletal like they’d been when he was the Red Robe. Covered in goop from the pod and kinda ruffled, but otherwise perfectly fine. Of course, Barry didn’t realize he had them until the coin the lich version of himself had left explained them. Taako and Merle only noticed them at that moment as well.

“More like Barry Bluejay, am I right?” Merle joked, and it lightened the mood somewhat. They still didn’t want to trust him though, and Magnus couldn’t blame them too much for that. They needed to see this through though, and Magnus felt like Barry was the way they could do it.

“Guys, listen. I’ve been remembering things. I remember knowing Barry before now, I remember being somewhere with ——— ————,” he explained, but that last part got blocked. Sighing (not that he needed to breathe, as a mannequin) he tried again. “I remember, being somewhere, where everyone had wings. Like us and like Barry. I don’t think it’s a curse,” he tried, and that seemed to get their attention.

“This shit is just too weird for me, but if you’re all going along with it then I’ll have your back,” Merle relented after a bit. Magnus turned to Taako, who seemed to be deep in thought during most of this.

“Taako?” he asked, because he knew he’d been bothered by the wings the most.

“I’m convinced of nothing,” he said, and Magnus’ wooden form slumped some. “But,” Taako continued, not looking at any of them, “something’s clearly wack here. If lich Barry thinks he’s got a way to find the truth then fuck it, I’m in.”

“Thanks guys,” Magnus said, and with that they tried to finalize the rest of the plan.

He had no idea if this was going to work, but they couldn’t stop now. They needed to get the truth.

——

Taako had just wanted some answers about what was going on with the bureau. He just wanted to know the truth about why he had wings.

He never wanted all of this.

Lup was gone. Lup was gone and he  _ forgot _ about her and he looted her body and watched it crumble to dust with a  _ smile on his face. _

“Ten…” he hated the way his voice cracked as he spoke. His hand was shaking as he held the umbrastaff out in front of him, pointed straight at Lucretia. There was a part of him that knew it wouldn’t matter if he attacked her. She had a shield conjured by a grand relic up around her, anything he tossed at her wouldn’t do shit.

He was too fucking pissed to give a damn.

“Nine…” he kept counting down. Eight. Seven. His voice didn’t even sound like himself anymore. Or no, he finally sounded like himself again, not the cheap hallow shell he’d been parading around as for ten years.

His heart felt fucking destroyed, ripped to shreds and broken as he realized the fucking  _ truth _ of everything.

He fucking had a heart again though, so while he wasn’t sure if it was better it was something.

It was enough to be  _ himself  _ again.

His wings weren’t as beautiful and well kept as they used to be. They were broken and beaten from the ten years of neglect, just like the rest of him.

But they weren’t bound up behind him anymore, hidden as much as possible. Instead he had them splayed out around him, feathers ruffled up in his rage. He wasn’t trying to hide them in the slightest anymore.

Sure, they weren’t the beautiful, meticulously kept wings they used to be, the wings he’d always been so  _ proud  _ of. He’d chosen to give up his beauty anyway, so this was no different. Damaged as they were, they were still one of the only connections he had to Lup.

Lup, who was fucking gone.

He didn’t give a shit who saw him anymore.

“You fucking took  _ everything _ from me!”

—

After the day of story and song, things were different. That wasn’t surprising, of course shit was different. They weren’t trapped in an endless cycle running from a world ending terror, and they didn’t have their most important memories and family wiped from their minds either.

Which was good. Both of those things sucked, and shit was much better with them not happening.

Except now Taako had to figure out himself for the third fucking time in his life, and it was kind of exhausting.

The others seemed to fall back into themselves pretty easily. Or not even that, something more. They were  _ better _ now, because shit was good and they could be.

And Taako should be too, and he guessed he was. He had Lup back, he wasn’t as fucked up as he’d been when she was gone. He wasn’t trying to hide his wings anymore.

He wasn’t going out of his way to show them off either though. Taako was pretty sure the liches had included them when taking away his beauty. They were a bit duller than Lup’s, and feathers not sitting quite as smoothly as they used to. Of course, some of that was from leaving them on their own for so long. There were small scars and burns that had never been treated or healed properly. Magnus had a whole lot more than him, but he didn’t care. He took that shit in stride, as long as they still flew he was good.

Merle had almost never fallen out of step with his wings. The dude embraced them as soon as he realized he had them again.

It shouldn’t matter, but it still bothered Taako. Of course it did, he’d had everything taken from him, and even when he got it back it wasn’t the same. It didn’t erase the time he’d had to go without. Part of him wanted to go back to using his glamour spell. Sometimes he did, when he was out making appearances and shit, but his family had been  _ encouraging him _ to try to go without it more. Which he got, but that didn’t make it suck any less.

He only noticed Lup coming into the room because she was still getting used to being in a body again. It would take a bit before she worked her stealth back up when she wasn’t in her new reaper mode.

When she sat down next to him he realized how curled up his wings were compared to hers, relaxed loosely against her back. He tried to unfurl them some without her noticing, but of course she did.

“How’s it hanging bro-bro?” she asked, casual as anything. Too casual. Even after missing her for ten years he was able to tell when she was trying to angle in for a serious feelings conversation.

“Oh you know, basking in a rare moment where I’m not busting my ass trying to build a school from the ground up,” he said.

“Yeah, you’re busy as shit nowadays,” she agreed. Taako wondered how long before she got to her point. “Sooo…” Not long.

“Did Barold get in trouble for necromantic crimes again? Need me to smooth things over with the boy?” he asked, hoping that he could distract. It wasn’t that he minded talking to Lup about stuff, he was just… rusty at it, after so long.

“No, Barry’s been a good reaper boy,” Lup assured him. “I was just thinking, I don’t see you flying much anymore,” she said, and that was about where Taako figured this would go. He was kind of surprised she'd waited so long to try and talk about it. Maybe she was waiting to get her body back and everything first.

“Guess my muscles atrophied too much with disuse,” he said, a casual tone to his voice as he shrugged. He was trying not to sound too bitter. He still was, and he wasn’t going to just get over this shit and pretend like it never happened, but he was trying.

“All the more reason for you to get out there and start putting them to use again,” Lup said.

“But that’s so much woooork,” Taako groaned, being as dramatic as possible. He could see Lup rolling her eyes at his complaining, but she was smiling the slightest bit as well.

“Don’t be fucking lazy you dork,” she said. To protest Taako flopped straight onto his back, making sure to have his wings spread out to his sides so he didn’t mess them up. There wasn’t any thought to it, he could move the wings as easily as breathing. At least that hadn’t been permanently taken from him as well.

“Okay, get up, we’re going for a fly,” Lup commanded, standing back up. Taako didn’t listen, staying where he was lying down.

“Lup, you know how rare it is for me to get a break nowadays? You’re really going to steal this away from me?” he asked. There was a part of him that did want to go flying with his sister, of course there was. Sure he was lazy but they didn’t hang out enough lately. They were both too busy setting up their new lives.

Taako didn’t think there could ever be  _ enough _ to make up for going ten years thinking she’d never even existed, anyway.

Despite all of that though, there was still a part of him that wanted to hang back. That despite the fact that the wings no longer felt foreign and that everyone in existence knew he had them, wanted to keep them out of the way. Out of sight.

“Kravitz was telling me you were wondering if he could give himself wings. We could call him up and make him come with us. Barry too. We’ll make a day out of it,” Lup said, and damn it. That actually sounded nice.

“Ugh, fine, but only because I wanna see if Kravitz actually tries to use wings or if he’s gonna cheat,” Taako relented, pushing himself up. Lup grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet, a stone of farspeech in her hand as she started calling their boys.

This wasn’t a big deal, but Taako couldn’t help but be excited about it anyway. He didn’t get to hang out with his family enough, now that he had them all back. He needed to more, it helped him remember that things were better.

Slowly but surely, things were getting better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaand it's finally done! i had a lot of fun working on this, and I hope it came out well!
> 
> As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy~

**Author's Note:**

> this au was suuuuper fun to do, it kinda got away from me because i just kept getting into each scene. there's most likely going to be a second chapter to this, mainly just because i love the idea. 
> 
> as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy~


End file.
